A decade of uncertainty has ended for Israelis and Lebanese alike with the return of the bodies of two Israeli soldiers by Hizbullah guerrillas, the return of the bodies of 123 Arab guerrillas, the release of 17 members of the pro Israeli South Lebanon Army, and the release of 45 prisoners held by the SLA. "It's not a moment of joy. At best it's a moment of relief. But more than anything, it's a moment of pain," the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, said in Jerusalem.
In a gesture of goodwill, the Israeli Defence Minister, Mr Yitzhak Mordechai, thanked everyone involved in this humanitarian deed, and specifically thanked Lebanon, Syria and Iran for their efforts. The swop is a humanitarian gesture by all sides, and comes only three months after Israel was engaged in heavy fighting inside Lebanon's borders. But Israel is still a long way from negotiating a separate peace deal with Lebanon, and yesterday's gestures do little if anything to help raise Mr Netanyahu's credibility among his Arab neighbours.
The contacts for this exchange began after the Israeli blitz of Lebanon in April, while Mr Shimon Peres was Prime Minister. Within weeks, he had suffered an election defeat at the hands of the more hardline Mr Netanyahu. Mr Netanyahu's election victory threw the whole Middle East peace process into doubt. He refuses to trade occupied Arab lands for peace, rejects the establishment of a Palestinian state, and insists on Jerusalem as a unified capital for Israel. And, so far, he has refused to meet the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, despite the fact that Israel has signed several interim peace accords with him.
Last week, Mr Netanyahu made his first visit to an Arab country since his election victory. After his talks with President Mubarak, he said he was committed to the peace treaties Israel had signed comments that appeared to mark a step back from the tough approach he maintained earlier this month in Washington, during his first official visit to the US, where he ruled out territorial concessions in return for peace.
Despite few concessions from the Israeli prime minister, Mr Mubarak said his meeting with Mr Netanyahu gave him "great hopes that the process will continue". The Egyptian leader's sense of hope was boosted by a promise from the Israeli leader to ease a five month closure of Palestinian areas which has caused extensive economic hardships. But that undertaking was reversed yesterday, and Mr Mubarak's assessment of the Cairo meeting differs from that of senior Palestinian officials who said Mr Netanyahu had yet to soften his hardline stance.
Mr Netanyahu has said his interpretation of the "land for peace principle" is that Israel gave back 90 per cent of the land captured in 1967 when it handed back Sinai to Egypt. And he has yet to answer major questions, such as his stand on Jerusalem, Jewish settlements, the fate of agreements signed by the previous government and final status negotiations. Yesterday's swop was not of Mr Netanyahu's making. But he can still show his good intentions by withdrawing Israeli troops from parts of Hebron, by living up to the undertakings he gave in Cairo to Mr Mubarak, and by hastily agreeing to meet Mr Arafat.